Coimbatore, located in the southern state of TamilNadu is known as the textile and engineering city of India. With its robust manufacturing sector, the city has also been emerged as a preferred destination for software companies who have established their offshore development centers in the city in the recent times.

The city boasts of a superb connectivity. Apart from a modern airport, Coimbatore has a well-developed network of broad gauge railway, six arterial roads, and three highways.

Direct flights to Singapore and Colombo have been proposed by Sri Lankan and Silk Airways.

Local Economy

This city of entrepreneurs also enjoys reputation of the highest revenue-earning district of Tamil Nadu.

Owing to its sheer manufacturing volumes of textiles, Coimbatore is called the ‘Manchester of South India’. Not just this, the small and medium sized engineering companies supply a substantial two-third of the India’s requirement of electric motors and pumps.

As for the service industry, the IT and IT enabled Services (ITeS) industry of Coimbatore is growing at a staggering pace. Corporate mammoths like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Cognizant have already established their centers in the city.

The league is followed by other like ABT Infoserve, Ephronsys, Robert Bosch, Nous Infosystems, CG-Vak Software, Quattro, Pricol, Spheris and Sharp etc.

Real Estate in Coimbatore

With its soaring industry and influx of capital by software companies, the Coimbatore real estate market is pretty upbeat.

Proposal of Rs 140 crore Software Technology Park has already paved way to real estate developers to plan their projects in consonance. Spread in about 14 acre, the park to be constructed at Avinashi Road will have all world-class facilities needed by software companies.

To add to it, the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ECTN) has also laid ambitious plans to set up an IT Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The park is proposed at Keeranatham village and will sprawl in the area as large as 60.73 acre.

In view of joining the bandwagon, real estate developers in Coimbatore like Presidium Constructions, Bannari Amman Group, Salzer Group, Span Ventures and KG Group have also been exploring the possibilities of establishing IT parks in and around the city.

Given the trends, the commercial real estate segment of Coimbatore has been estimated to have the development of some 10-15 million sq. ft. of office space by the end of year 2009. The land prices in the prime market and residential areas of Coimbatore have shot by 40-100 per cent in the past 12 months. What has kept the builders in cool is that the demand is realistic and end-user driven.

The markets are so far free from speculative trends and that’s why the real estate boom in Coimbatore is believed as sustainable.

Prices in residential segment comprising houses and apartments hover between Rs 8-25 lakh and registered a rise of about 25-30 per cent in the last year.

Industry experts find pricing of properties in Coimbatore at reasonable levels. For instance, flats at Race Course and RS Puram are selling at Rs 2,000-Rs 2,200 psft. Rates at Saibaba Colony are at moderate Rs 1,500-Rs 1,600. Areas of Peelamedu also clock near Rs 1,500.

As per estimates, about 50 residential projects are in progress at different parts of Coimbatore and more than 3,000 apartments are likely to be developed under the same.

Future Outlook

Vis-à-vis the number and size of construction projects coming up in the city, the property market in Coimbatore is set on the trajectory of high growth.

Investment at the sites in or around the major IT parks will fetch handsome returns in the next 3-5 years, experts say. Overall, the market fundamentals are strong and trends are realistically sound.